mired in roulette. a japanese electronics giant loses its competitive edge. japanese electronics makers don't like the picture they've seen. sharp is projected to post a record loss for the year ending next march. executives have seen poor results in their core business,

selling tvs. managers have seen sluggish tv sales month after month and they've watched prices fall in europe and emerging markets in asia. sharp posted an extraordinary loss in the six-month period that ended in september. first-half losses are expected to reach $4.8 billion, 80% more than initially projected. this is the second consecutive yearly loss. executives have told lenders that they plan to push says of small and mid-sized lcd panels for smartphones and tablet computers. the people at sharp aren't aloun among japanese electronicsmakers. panasonic announced it will post a loss of nearly $9 million this career. greek leaders hoping for another bailout will have to wait. for that sxoertd business stories, raw mean mellegard joins us from the business desk. >> we've been reporting for

quite a while now on government leaders really trying to attempt to wrestle with their budgets along with international lenders and it looks like this latest effort is going to drag on until later this month. eurozone finance ministers have shelved a decision on another bailout for greece until november. they want an austerity deal with international lenders first. finance ministers from 17 countries held a telephone witness to discuss the bailout. they said greece has yet to reach agreement on specification austerity measures with its creditors. the creditors include the european union and international mown tear fund. the austerity measures are a precondition for fresh emergency loans to avoid a potential default. the finance ministers urged the greek government to reach a consensus on labor reforms. the ministers will again discuss the greek bailouts when they meet on november 12th. greece is taking that pressure from the eu seriously.

the government there has submitted a revitdsed draft budget to parliament outlining yet more spending cuts. the budget for next year will slash spending by 9.4 billion euro. the government intends to submit bills next week to cut pensions and civil servants' salaries. greek economic growth is likely to be negative 4.5% next year. the government is urging international creditors to provide rescue loans as early as possible in exchange for austerity measure. public anger against the plan is growing. major unions have announced a 48-hour general strike for next week. tokyo share prices are showing initial reaction to new york's trading after two days of closure due to the storm. wednesday the dow jones industrial average closed at 13,096. the nasdaq fell 0.4% to 20,977.

to see how things are kicking off, we go to the tokyo stock exchange. how are things looking over there? >> raw mean, we are about three minutes to trading thursday morning and off to a etty weak stt. let's go through the opening levels at the tokyo stock exchange. the nikkei average down about 0.2%, 8,910. small losses for topix quoted at 741. tokyo markets are in fact showing their initial response to wall street's performance on wednesday. sentiment in europe was pretty jittery. many investors were staying on the sidelines. the dow jones industrial average started higher, later dropped into the negative led by stock and tech shares. there is a sense of relief in new york, the united states, that trading in new york went smoothly. that's been reflected by the fact that the dow's fall was not as steep as initially feared. here in tokyo, earnings

announcements will continue to be a major focus. we are learning comes are slashing their earnings projections. but it is interesting to note that some companies that lowered their profit forecasts actually rose on wednesday and they include shipping companies. that's because investors were encouraged to see that bad news was out of the way. today we would like to focus on electronicsmakers. catherine ntioned earlier about shp and how that company is expecting its biggest loss in history. sharp and sony will be releasing their earnings reports later today. now, we also heard from panasonic yesterday that it now forecasts a net loss of almost $10 billion this year. other electronics giants like hitachi and mitsubishi electric revised down their profit forecasts. we'd like to see how those stocks doctoring to perform throughout the day. >> seems like a lot of news to digest in the stock markets. let's take a lk at currencies. how artheyrading this

morning? >> if you take a look at the currency market, there is a sense of wait and see. dealers are staying on the sidelines. if you look at the levels of dollar/yen, 79.85-88. euro/yen, changing hands at 1 owe 03.50-54. the yen weakened slightly as investors see the boj maintaining its easing monetary status but moods were limited and volume was pretty low partly due to the impact of superstorm sandy. dealers' attention now focused on the very important policy watch, the u.s. jobs data, which will be out on friday, as well as the u.s. presidential election next week. so a lot to watch out for. back to the studio. >> a lot to watch out for indeed, thank you very much. our business reporter at the tokyo stock exchange. that's all for business news for this hour. i'll leave you with a recap of the markets.

u.s. president barack obama would be speaking to crowd after crowd in swing states if it hadn't been for the storm. he has less than a week to convince undecided voters. st americans have already examined his record over the past four years. he started his term with a sentiment offered by many of those who came before him. >> that america can change. our union can be perfected. >> many americans have grown tired of what their country had come to represent under george w. bush. obama promised change at home and abroad.

he brought an end to the war in iraq. he said u.s. combat forces would pull out of afghanistan by the end of 2014. and he promised to decimate al qaeda. >> after a fire fight they killed osama bin laden and took custody of his body. we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al qaeda's terror, justice has been done. >> but some argue obama has not met expectations in the middle east. he's faced persistent trouble with a dominant player in the region, iran. he has focused foreign policy to make it more multilateral, part of what he calls a broader shift. aft a dade in whi we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the united states is turning our attention to the vast potential of the asia-pacific region. >> reporter: obama turned his

attention at home to pushing through health care reform, something president after president had tried to do. he succeeded with what became known as obama care, the most significant overhaul since medicare and medicaid in the 1960s. he pushed to shore up banks aftethe financial crisis. congress passed legislation two years ago imposing stricter regulations on financial institutions and giving more protection to customers. reforming the nation's finances has proved more difficult. republicans criticize obama for the mounting national debt, and they say the unemployment rate, 7.8%, is unacceptably high. >> the latest poll suggests the candidates are running close, but they were taken before the storm hit shore. earlier gene otani spoke about obama's successes and his failures. >> the president is not the

first president obviously to promise change, but he certainly made that word stick. how do voters think he's done? >> obama did change a number of things and not the least of which is of course health care reform. presidents on both sides of the aisle tried before him and failed. and he ended the war in iraq and he passed the stimulus among a number of other financial initiatives. somexper say hwas peap too ambitious. >> coming in he said the administration was to really change the course of foreign policy and economic policy that the bush administration had been following. and he was elected on that mandate. but it was again difficult for him to achieve that change. apparently because the problem is so huge that they can't reallyhange the suctural economy and military policy,

foreign policy, in two, four years. he laid the groundwork, but i don't think he's achieved as much as he wanted or as the people expected. >> we just heard from the professor about foreign policy. how do you think obama has changed the u.s. approach? >> right, well, obama had said repeatedly that america is a pacific nation. and he's been refocusing foreign policy toward asia. commanders at the pentagon really poured resourcetowards this region. and obama tried to strengthen economic ties, for example, congress passed a free trade fact with south korea. but mitt romney and others say obama still hasn't done enough on issues such as the currency disparity with china. republicans say his approach to nuclear weapons is misguided. the professor says somewhere along the way, obama got

sidetracked. >> like the working without nuclear weapons, he had an idea and this global vision, but middle east was so volatile and promising at the same time. during his administration. and naturally i think he was sort of shifted to that region instead of asia. >> but most americans care most about what happens at home. millions of them are still without work. we'll get the latest numbers on friday and no doubt voters will look to that as a cue to how obama has done. opposition commanders in syria feared government forces would use a cease-fire to rebuild their strength and they say that's what's happened. they claim government pilots have escalated their bombing campaign. both sides said they would lay down their arms to observe the

muslim holiday. neither side respected the truce. human rights activists say more than 500 people were killed during the four-day period that ended on monday. and opposition forces say government fighter jets bombed at least five cities on wednesday. they say the air strikes killed at least ten people near the northern city of aleppo. opposition activists say government pilots have been conducting more frequent air raids and using more powerful bombs over the last few days. the activists say the attacks have caused many civilian casualties. the u.n. and arab league envoy to syria organized the truce and now admits it failed. now he's trying to rally support. he says china can play an active role in resolving the conflict saying cease-fires should be arranged district by district and local truces could then be

expanded. he said all sides should appoint representatives to come up with a roadmap to political transition. brahimi made a similar push when he met with russian officials in moscow. chinese and russian delegates have vetoed u.n. council resolutions -- u.n. security counci resolutions to impose sanctions onhe syrian governme. people in afghanistan will soon be heading to the polls. the country's election commission announced it will hold elections for a new president to replace hamid karzai in april 2014. the country's election commission made the announcement on wednesday. the constitution bans karzai from serving a third term. the head of the election commission expressed concern for the safety of voters. he urged taliban insurgents to take part in the election instead of trying to disrupt it with terror attacks. international forces are set to pull out by the end of 2014. the u.s. military has started withdrawing its troops. the 2009 presidential election was marred by taliban attacks

and allegations of fraud, mostly by karzai supporters. religious violence is continuing between buddhists and minority mud limbs in myanmar. now the u.n.'s refugee agency is calling for law and order so they can bring aid to those affected by the conflict. the agency says more than 28,000 people have been forced out of their homes in the e latest wave of fighting. it's clearly urgent that law and order be restored so that violence can be prevented and so that access is facilitated for aid to be delivered to those in need. >> the latest outbreak of violence between buddhists and muslims in the state of rakine has continued since october 21st. the local government says that at least 84 people have been killed. the conflict first erupted earlier this year after a group of muslims allegedly assaulted a buddhist woman. the united nations is suppes trefugees in the cy

area. >> the camps in and around sitwe are already hosting most of the 75,000 people who remain displaced in the wave of violence that broke out in june this year. with a new influx these already crowded camps are being stretched beyond capacity in terms of space, shelter, and basic supplies. >> meanwhile, the association of southeast asian nations is promising to respond to conflict in one of its member countries. e ase secretaryeneral is urging the international community to help myanmar. >> asean can certainly spearhead humanitarian engagement, just to help the people, to relieve the pressure, to relieve the suffering and the pain. and then there are other issues beyond asean that has to be taken up by the international community, by the global institutions like the u.n.

data thieves are getting more and more innative on how they steal peoe's information. police in tokyo have arrested five people on suspicion of creating smartphone applications designed to take data stored in handsets. some say developers need to be more rigorous in how they screen apps. >> reporter: users can find software for seemingly endless numbers of things these days. social networking, photo-sharing, finance. data thieves in tokyo created applications that resemble software for games. they wanted to take advantage of users wanting to have a little fun and steal personal information. they designed their fraud for smartphones, running on the android operating system. users could download application for free. experts recreated how the app works.

when the application is installed, the data in the phones -- e-mail addresses, telephone numbers -- will be transmitted to an outside server. then this message would pop up. the user would never realize their personal info was in somebody else's hands. the police caught on. they arrested the former chairman of a tokyo-based i.t. firm and four others. police say the thieves uploaded about 50 applications and collected personal data from about 90,000 smartphones on more than 10 million people in all. >> translator: smartphones are beginning to be used widely in japan. the android operating system is open-sourced and much easier to

manipulate. users are supposed to provide their own security. it appears that japan is finally having to face the same perils the world is battling with. >> reporter: computer security experts say fraudulent apps were first discovered in japan two years ago. they say the number has been on the rise. 175,000 by last month. critics and now thousands of users say existing protections are not enough. nhk world, tokyo. artists face a fundamental choice in their work. whether to depict what they see in their imagination or the realities of daily life. this question has emerged late in the career of an 88-year-old japanese artist, prompted by what he saw last year and after the earthquake and tsunami.

fujishiro's works are made from paper which he cuts into intricate shapes into magical land shapes. his central theme has long been, the joy of living. in september, an exhibition of fujishiro's works opened in tokyo. there was one new pce in particularhat caught the visito visitors' attention. called "the miraculous pine tree," it depicts a powerful image. a single tree that survived last year's great eastern japan earthquake and tsunami. >> translator: i can really feel the emotion in this work. i can't hold back my tears. the way he drew the tsunami feels different. it's not like his other works. i think he's put more of his own personal feelinginto this piece.

>> reporter: fujishiro has been working on other images showing the aftermath of the disaster. this new work depicts a building that was demolished by the tsunami, leaving nothing but its metal frame. he uses a razor blade to cut out the basic silhouette that will form the main image. fujishiro's first visito the vastated regionas in august of last year. he traveled to miyagi prefecture, one of the worst-hit areas of northeastern japan. this is one of the pieces fujishiro created following his visit. the depiction of debris and destruction captures the depth of emotion in this scene. >> translator: i realize that i

must focus more on nature. i must confront it, i must grapple with it. it took me all these years but i finally became aware of this. >> reporter: this august, fujishiro returned to the disaster area, to a location with special significance. before the tsunami, there were thick pine woods all along this coast. afterward, only one was left standing. working from his sketches, fujishiro depicted it rising above the wreckage of the disaster. >> translator: we can'tgnore things. we must face them, and we must never forget. it's the same for every generation. when we see what we've overcome, we see how strong people truly are. >> reporter: fujishiro's message

is clear. no matter what the adversity, once we have overcome it, there is hope. >> reminding us of the resiliencef human beings, maind. > time t cck weather conditions around the world. people in southern regions of india are dealing with heavy rain. mayo show gee joins us with the latest. >> this is due to the influence of the cyclonic storm which has made landfall. let me show you a video coming up from these regions. wednesday evening it made landfall and reported a maximum wind speed of 75 alcohol tears per hour err you can see those trs really swaying. the good news is that there's no significant damage that has been reported related from this storm system. but schools and colleges will be closed in the surrounding areas

throughout your thursday. if we can pull back i can show you this storm will be moving inland as a deep depression. it has downgraded already. but the rainfall accumulation is going to be some staggering amounts the next few days, probab about 200 millimers on top what was we have aea be seeingn and around this area, more than 100 millimeterth in the past 24 hours has been falling. so the ground is very, very loose. any kind of additional rain fall could trigger flash flooding and further landslides across east regions. the wind, gale force winds, are finally going to be tapering off, which is very good news. sri lanka, southeastern india, those waves will start to taper off and start to be on the lower levels. but into the next 24 hours, we'll finitely keep a very ose eye on the very heavily rainfall. in the bigger picture, this is sea of japan, we have a low

pressure system. the water's still warm so it's going to be developing over the water, moving into western japan. as it does so, very unstable weather will be on forecast here in northern japan. and that includes thunderstorms and also even tornados which cannot be ruled out widely across these regions. out towards the west we already have a winter pattern kicking in. so that's going to turn into white. any kind of precipitation in the higher evations he, that's going to be looking very wintry. also, very wintry here in ulan bator at 5 for your high. the low is just about minus 7. just 9 for your high for seoul. but 22 in tokyo. we'll have a very nice day here. out across the americas, we can see still these very huge low pressure systems. just unorganized but bringing some amount of rain and windy distance. sandy has already made lots of

damage when it madeandfall in new jersey, the total accumulation more than 300 here as well. the snowfall accumulations are also one of the issues across the east. especially eastern canada, freezing rain will bring very dangerous driving conditions, and west virginia still has winter weather advisories. a total accumulation of about 15 centimeters on top what was we already see could be found. also very wintry here in the canadian rockies. northern california, really heavy rain to target your area. wintry in the nor but summer-like in some of these regions in the south. that's going to turn november 30s into your weekend. here's your extended forecast.

that's all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in

tokyo. thanks for joining us.

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